Police arrest Northwestern professor suspected in slaying

iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — A Northwestern University professor accused in the fatal stabbing of a man found in the educator’s Chicago apartment has been arrested — as has the second suspect in the case — and both men are now in police custody in Oakland, California, Chicago police announced late Friday night.

Arrest warrants for first-degree murder in Chicago were issued earlier this week for both men.

Latham was arrested around 7:30 p.m. in Oakland by U.S. Marshals after the agency was able to track the professor to the Bay Area city and get in contact with him, U.S. Marshals spokesman Ed Farrell told ABC News.

Farrell said U.S. Marshals were able to facilitate his surrender. He turned himself in at the Federal Courthouse in Oakland.

Andrew Warren was arrested after he “safely surrendered” himself around 6:30 p.m. to San Francisco police, authorities said.

Both men — taken into custody without incident — will appear before an Oakland court and are now awaiting extradition to Illinois, where they will be questioned by Chicago homicide detectives.

Here’s what we know about the case:

The crime

On July 27 around 8:30 p.m. local time, officers responded to a call at an apartment registered to Wyndham Lathem, an associate professor at Northwestern, Chicago police said.

There, officers found a man with several lacerations to his body, police said. The victim died at the scene.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department told ABC News that authorities believe Lathem “and the victim had a relationship.”

The suspects

Police have identified Lathem, 42, as well as Andrew Warren, 56, an Oxford employee, as suspects in the killing.

Lathem, who has been a faculty member at Northwestern’s microbiology-immunology department for 10 years, has been banned from entering the school, Alan Cubbage, Northwestern University vice president for university relations, said in a statement Wednesday.

“There is no indication of any risk to the Northwestern community from this individual at this time,” Cubbage added.

According to police, Lathem sent a video message to various friends and family members apologizing for his alleged involvement in the killing.

Lathem described the killing as the biggest mistake of his life, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, but police will not release the video, as it is evidence in an ongoing investigation.

Guglielmi told ABC News Friday the two suspects donated $1,000 in the victim’s name to the public library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Warren’s city of residence is listed as Oxford on his arrest warrant.

The manhunt

Guglielmi said in an email Thursday that the men are at-large but “we have an idea of their whereabouts.”

“Efforts to locate them are only intensifying from here on in,” Guglielmi said.

He said that once police had “suspicions that the professor and his associate may have fled the Chicago area,” several federal agencies were brought in to investigate and a national alert was sent to police departments across the country advising that murder warrants were issued for both men.

“Our primary focus is to facilitate a safe surrender and we strongly encourage Professor Lathem and Mr. Warren to do the right thing and turn themselves into any police department in the U.S. or contact CPD [the Chicago Police Department] and we will make any necessary accommodations,” Guglielmi said.